Exceptions of french pronunciation
I'm "fascinated" by all the exceptions of french pronunciations, e.g.
- verb ending "ent" of third person plural is silent
- femme is pronounced "f-a-m"
- faisons is "f-e-zon"
- monsieur is "m-e-sieur"
- patience is "p-si-ence"
...

Needless to say, these can easily trip self-learners of french if you don't pay attention, so could you list down some other such exceptions to be watched for, especially when learning outside of a classroom?

Thanks!

Question

Exceptions of french pronunciation
I'm "fascinated" by all the exceptions of french pronunciations, e.g.
- verb ending "ent" of third person plural is silent
- femme is pronounced "f-a-m" 
- faisons is "f-e-zon"
- monsieur is "m-e-sieur"
- patience is "p-si-ence"
...

Needless to say, these can easily trip self-learners of french if you don't pay attention, so could you list down some other such exceptions to be watched for, especially when learning outside of a classroom?

Thanks!

Answer

others are:
p is spoken: at the beginning of a word: place, papa
                  in the middle of a word: lampe, septembre
p is not spoken: before a consonant: se(p)t, ba(p)tiser
                       after nasals            : camp, champ

i could list a lot of others!! there are books to check these exceptions if you look for a book about french phonetics you will find them! hope it helps you a bit!!

Answer

salut owen!
there is for example an exception concerning the "e":
"e" often disappears between two consonants:
samedi= samdi, demain=dmain,la petite fille= la ptite fille, etc.

but it stays if there are more than two consonants:
par sEmaine, une pEtite fille

Đừng bỏ lỡ cơ hội học ngoại ngữ ngay tại nhà. Hãy xem danh sách các gia sư ngôn ngữ giàu kinh nghiệm của chúng tôi và đăng ký buổi học đầu tiên ngay hôm nay!